This morning I was sitting at the Little Tokyo library in Los Angeles reading a magazine article about Naomi Osaka, the newest sensation in the tennis world (and apparently in Japan) after winning the U.S. Open last year and the recently completed Australian Open and realized the cosmic significance of what I was doing: reading about a half-black, half-Japanese (father is black, mother is Japanese but took a Japanese last name to help her better assimilate into Japanese culture growing up, which is in itself a reflection on Japanese culture) tennis sensation while sitting in a library that is half-black, half-Japanese in its constituency: it contains Japanese books and built near a Japanese American population, but also near a large homeless population that unfortunately consists of a large African American population. Both Naomi Osaka and the library are examples of races being able to co-exist within one body, whether it's a human body or an intellectual gathering place kind of body. The homeless population at the library kind of makes the place smell and the bathrooms unusable, and there will be occasional burps and weird noises, but all in all these homeless are the tame homeless who are there to use the computer and find some place to hang out for awhile, and that''s not too different then what Japanese are there for: have somewhere to gain intellectual knowledge, sit for awhile in peace, listen to the piano recital going on in the conference room next to the library. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.
Osaka's rise in popularity (suddenly EVERYONE in Japan knows her and she's constantly on the news) isn't that surprising: it's a country that's starved for sports stars, and human beings naturally gravitate more towards liking sports stars and entertainers more than politicians, world leaders, etc. You could tell from the Japanese women's soccer team winning the World Cup in 2011 how important sports can be for the country as a sort of pride, that we're not just a wimpy Asian country that produces smart but unathletic people. I think Asian countries and people (myself included) feel a source of pride from Asian sports stars, fighting stereotypes and being a rarity out of all the sports stars in the world. I was privately holding out hope that I would be the Asian representative in dodgeball, but my lease on dodgeball life is growing short and I'm near retirement, if not semi-retirement. In many ways it's better that Osaka is half black and half Japanese, because the native Japanese can claim her as one of her own, but also embrace that Haitian father-side of her and understand other cultures, not just use her as a source of cultural dominance of a pure-bred Japanese (like Osaka's male counterpart, Kei Nishikori). Osaka understands Japanese but only answers in English, which also plays to the "I'm kind of Japanese, but I'm not totally one of you guys, but that's OK, everyone's a little different." Osaka is also a great sports star and role model have for the coming decade, as personally I think Serena Williams's dominance has grown a little stale and she's not the best role model (getting upset at the refs, throwing tantrums, etc.), and Osaka is like a new wave of fresh air.
I think people, including me, are fascinated by half (mixed) people not only by their physical features, but by their personalities and behavior. Just learned today at the library also: Kamala Harris, senator from California and newest Democrat entry into the 2020 Presidential race, is also a half: African American and Indian. I think it's a good reminder that no matter which race we are, we can embrace other races, embrace their differences even though those differences might be negative. At least understand, don't just dismiss as "those people" are weird. Whenever someone says so-and-so race is this way or that way, I go back to one of my golden rules that "there are good people in every race or group, and there are bad people in every race." There are like 1.5 billion Chinese people, some of those people are bound to be good, some are bound to be bad.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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